WALLINGFORD, CONN. (December 4, 2016)—The Sacred Heart women's bowling team made a splash at the first Northeast Conference meet of the season winning all 10 of their matches to end the weekend in first place in the league standings. Amanda Nardiello and Sarah Morris played huge roles in the Pioneers' win and finished one-two in the individual stands averaging 212.0 and 204.43 respectively.
Noteworthy:
- Nariello filled 49 of her 50 frames on Sunday leading the team with a 23.9 average. Overall she led the team in average and filled frame percentage for the whole weekend
- Sarah Rhodes led the team going 31-for-31 in single-pin spares
Day 1: Traditional Matches:
Match 1:
- SHU 1080 – Saint Francis U 946
- Morris earned a spot in the starting lineup for the first time this season and started the meet off with a bang throwing the Pioneers' high game of the day, 259, in the first match
Match 2:
- SHU 1012 – Fairleigh Dickinson 925
- Nardiello led the way for Sacred Heart win over NEC preseason favorite FDU throwing a 220 game
- With all five Pioneers in the lineup posting over 190 in the match, Morris and Hoffman again tallied 200+ games, throwing 204 and 203 respectively
Match 3:
- SHU 1017 – Caldwell 880
- This time it was Nardiello and Sarah Rhodes, who finished fourth individually, that led SHU to a win. Rhodes, who entered the weekend eighth in the country in single pin spare percentage, paced the Pioneers with a 225, with Nardiello tossing a 214
Match 4:
- SHU 957 – St. Francis Brooklyn 919
- While the Pioneers stumbled a bit in the fourth match of the day compared to the first three, the duo of Rhodes and Nardiello helped bring home the win with a 215 and 212 respectively
Match 5:
- SHU 926 – LIU Brooklyn 893
- The Pioneers posted their lowest match score of the day against the Blackbirds, but still managed to come out ahead of LIU Brooklyn, who SHU defeated to win the 2016 NEC Championship
- Amanda Tyrrell, who averaged 196.6 for the day, led the way with a 195 game
Match 6:
- SHU 1064 – Duquesne 845
- Courtney McGinn came off the bench in the fifth match of the day for the first NCAA action she's seen this season to throw the high game of 258
Day 2: Baker Matches:
Match 1:
- SHU had a bye during the first match of the day bowling a 1030
- Nardiello was moved into the anchor position during the bye match and retained that spot all day ultimately filling 49 of her 50 frames to average 23.9
Match 2:
- SHU 1058 – Saint Francis U 909
- Rhodes filled all 10 frames throwing seven of them for a strike, totaling 247 at the end of five games
Match 3:
- SHU 1107 – Fairleigh Dickinson 990
- The Pioneers were squeaky clean in games one and four of the match
- Rhodes filled seven of her frames against the Knights to combine to bowl 219 through the five games of baker
- McGinn and Hoffman filled nine of their 10 frames with strikes or spares with the former throwing seven of 10 balls for strikes
Match 4:
- SHU 995 – Caldwell 917
- The second to last match of the weekend marked the first time all weekend the Pioneers were trailing their opponent. After four games, SHU was down just one pin to Caldwell with one more game to go
- SHU bowlers bounced back in the fifth game making great shots to finish out strong with a 224
- Nardiello posted a clean match filling 15 of 18 frames with strikes to go on to total 268
- Tyrrell came in off the bench to throw six of her seven balls for strikes. The senior went on to average 24.1 pins per frame in the match
Match 5:
- SHU 1055 – LIU Brooklyn 975
- Both Hoffman and Nardiello filled all 10 frames in the final match of the weekend. Hoffman threw six of her 10 frames for strikes, while Nardiello converted 11 of her 18 balls for stikes
